It has been dubbed a catastrophe in the making and even the potential trigger for mankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis. But it was hard to reconcile those fears with the banal sight of a murky pool of water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

It is a long time since there has been a Speaker of the House of Commons as intensely disliked by ministers as the incumbent, John Bercow. After years of grumbling and complaining in Parliament’s corridors and cafés, no less a figure than the deputy Chief Whip, Greg Hands, has gone public to vent the business managers’ frustration about Bercow’s practice of allowing Prime Minister’s Questions to carry on past its allotted half hour. “PMQs getting like Old Trafford. 5 minutes extra time in the hope that the Reds can score a late equaliser,” he tweeted.